Stipulated: Russia is letting Snowden stay to diminish America in some way [View all]
By letting Snowden stay in Russia, rather than arresting and extraditing him, Russia is acting in Russia's perceived self-interest and acting to the (perceived) detriment of the USA
This detriment can be as simple as not letting America get its way... thwarting us on a small thing just so they world will see us thwarted. Or it can be as lurid as it pleases one to imagine.
(Russia may be doing us an unintended favor insofar as a Snowden trial would be fertilizer for anti-American sentiment in some quarters, but the USA, for whatever reason, thinks our interests are served by Snowden's return.)
In any case, Russia is not acting out of an abstract love of press freedoms.
This should be stipulated by all in hopes of achieving a better signal-to-noise ratio. It is obvious and has nothing whatsoever to do with the propriety of NSA programs and procedures.
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